Release
by Believe the Lie
Summary: Hermione and Ginny are each left battered and broken in the wake of a ruthless Death Eater attack. In order to succeed in the upcoming war against Voldemort, they are forced to release the events of the past, no matter how difficult. Yes, it's femmeslash.
1. Prologue

A/N: This story's going to be darker than the stuff I usually write. But there will be chapters that aren't so dark. Just giving you fair warning before you read...

**Setting:** Harry's seventh year at Hogwarts. Despite the events that ocurred during the previous year, Harry returns to Hogwarts along with his friends in order to prepare for the upcoming battle against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Assume that Draco and Severus are **evil**, despite any evidence from books 1-6 that may prove otherwise.

Warnings: Eventual femmeslash, a good deal of violence, serious angst among other things.  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with Harry Potter nor do I claim to own anything associated with Harry Potter. The characters belong to J.K. Rowling, I just like using them as puppets...

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"When did Harry say he was going to be back?" Ginny asked, impatiently for the umpteenth time as the two girls climbed through the portrait hole and walked into the Gryffindor common room. 

"I dunno, Gin, they only left a couple hours ago," Hermione sighed and tossed her hair with a free hand. "I'm sure they'll be back soon."

Harry, ever the determined hero, had chosen to return to Hogwarts during his seventh year to offer protection to his fellow students and to attempt to discover the locations of the remaining horcruxes before Voldemort had the chance to reclaim them. Lately, Ron and Harry had taken to going out for hours, sometimes days, at a time to follow up on leads they received as to the locations of prospective horcruxes. So far, most of them had led to dead ends, but the latest tip seemed most promising: an artifact from the home of Tom Riddle, Sr. that had been squirreled away by Voldemort's most loyal Death Eaters. The tip came from Severus Snape himself in order to reduce his prison sentence.

The School was more like a hostel than an educational facility. Instead of hosting a myriad of classes, the focus of the building shifted to housing displaced students who lost their families in attacks comissioned by the Death Eaters or simply had no place else to be. Though most of the Weasley family continued to reside at the Burrow, Ron and Ginny remained at Hogwarts to help Harry in any way possible.

"I wish he'd stop treating me like I'm still a scared, defenseless eleven-year-old girl," Ginny muttered as they ascended the staircase towards Hermione's separate Head Girl room. "I can defend myself now, I should be helping him right now," she insisted in a whiney voice that made Hermione cringe.

"Look, I'm sure he's just trying to protect you," she said as she opened the door, ushering Ginny inside.

"Yeah, that's what he said when he broke up with me last year," Ginny replied, deadpanned. She took a seat on the edge of Hermione's bed and pulled a scarlet pillow to her chest, resting her head on it as she sighed loudly. Hermione opened her mouth to speak but she was cut off as Ginny continued, "Not like I _minded_ much anyway, he's not my type, but the way he chose to break it off was less than subtle."

Hermione nodded and took a seat next to Ginny. "Men are stupid," she concluded and Ginny reaffirmed her conclusion with a curt nod. The solemn moment was interrupted as the two girls immediately broke out laughing. Hermione leaned her head on Ginny's shoulder, surprised that the other girl did not immediately pull away. "You smell nice," Hermione said, closing her eyes as she relaxed into the nape of Ginny's neck.

Ginny chuckled, "What would Ron say if he walked in right now?"

_Oh, I could think of a few things, none of them particularly pleasant,_ Hermione thought as she pictured Ron spouting out a series of expletives. She grinned, "Screw him. We're not together anymore." She had ended their relationship the week before but could not think of a solid reason for her decision other than his bad breath and tactless advances.

She nodded, approvingly, "I was going to suggest that you leave him anyway, he cheated on you with Lavender." Ginny adjusted her position on the bed forcing Hermione to lift her head from her shoulder. The younger girl reclined against the headboard, pulling Hermione into her arms. "So, who do you have your sights set on now?" she asked with an inquisitive grin.

Hermione shrugged the question off. "No one, really," she said while trying to conceal a blush. _This is definitely not a good time to tell her..._

Ginny's arms snaked around Hermione's waist causing the older girl to shiver inaudibly. "Come on, Hermione, there has to be _someone_."

She tilted her head from side to side in an attempt to articulate an answer. She opened her mouth to speak as a loud "_thump_" resounded through the dormitory, causing Ginny to quickly pull away.

Oblivious to the sound, Hermione looked up at her, concerned, "What is it?"

Ginny's eyes were focused on the door, ears straining to hear the sound again. "Didn't you hear that?" she asked quickly, rising from her position on the bed. Catching the crestfallen look that had crossed her friend's face, she added, "I'm going to go take a look, make sure everything's alright... I'm sorry."

Hermione nodded and said quietly as Ginny neared the door, "You know, it's probably an idiot first-year testing out some of Fred and George's latest...inventions." Ginny nodded, rolling her eyes knowingly as she stepped through the doorway, silently shutting the door behind her. "Damn it," she muttered to herself once she was sure Ginny was out of earshot. She raised a hand to massage her brow which had tightened with frustration. _Every single time I try to get close to her, there's always some interruption. I have to accept the fact that I've got no chance with her, that's why she's avoiding me like this all of the time..._

A cry from the common room pulled her roughly from her thoughts. _What in the bleeding hell do they think they're doing down there? _She sat perched on the edge of the bed, deciding whether or not to address the situation.

Another cry, louder this time. Even through the thick oak door that closed her room off from the common room below her, she could make out the words, "Help, _please_!" The last coherent thought to pass through her mind before she bolted for the door of her room was, _Oh, no...Ginny_.

She ran down the stairs, not caring whether she tripped over a few steps on the way. Coming to a halt at the edge of the last step, Hermione froze in shock, completely unprepared for the scene that awaited her in the Gryffindor common room. _Death Eaters._ At least half a dozen of them, positioned at different locations of the room, robes billowing in a nonexistent wind. _How did they..._

Then she saw the bodies. Half of Gryffindor house laid strewn about the common room, motionless corpses with fear still plastered across their motionless faces. The body closest to her, a second-year she recognized from breakfast the morning before, was physically untouched and could be easily mistaken for a live person if his chest had been moving up and down. Others were not as lucky. Lavender Brown's limp body was draped over the side of a chair, face and arms covered in blood. On the floor beneath her was the body of her friend Parvati and it was clear that one must have watched the other die. She fought to choke back the gag reflex threatening to overcome her body by placing a hand to her mouth.

Her mind finally began to function again as her eyes darted around the rest of the room, panicking, looking to the faces of the dead bodies and silently praying that she would not see Ginny's lifeless eyes staring back at her. She breathed a sigh of relief: Ginny was nowhere to be found.

One of the Death Eaters heard her stifled gasp and turned towards her, a mask concealing their identity. "Miss Granger, how nice of you to grace us with your presence," the voice, clearly a woman's, snappped through her mask.

Hermione's breath caught in her throat. "Bellatrix Lestrange," she gasped, barely audibly.

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A/N: Goddamn cliffhangers. There's more to come. Much, _much_ more. Everything will eventually be explained in later chapters. Reviews are much appreciated. : ) 


	2. Bellatrix Lestrange

A/N: Yes, I know I'm making Hermione seem like a female version of Neville. Give me some leeway for characterization, here. It _does_ get better, I promise. She's not going to be a wimp forever... Oh, and find the_ V for Vendetta_ quote and you can have a cookie.

Left Behind: I didn't plan on bashing your ship any more throughout the course of this fiction, but I might make the effort to go out of my way and include some more "Snape is evil" lines if you would like.

**Warning: Imminent relatively strong violence.**

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"Bellatrix Lestrange," she gasped, barely audibly as her mind entered a new level of shock. Her hand slid slowly to the front pocket of her robes where her wand was located. Hermione fingered the handle of the wood lightly, waiting for the opportune moment when she would remove it from its sheath.

Bellatrix smiled, "Clever girl." She gently removed the hood and mask from around her features and walked several paces towards where Hermione stood. With a sly grin on her face, she looked over Hermione's appearance, basking in the fear and the apprehension that radiated from her body. "I've got a couple of questions for you, so if you don't mind," she motioned towards a chair by the fireplace, "I'd like to have a talk with you."

"I don't think so," Hermione responded and whipped out her wand. Pointing it expertly at Bellatrix, she spoke defiantly, "_Expelliarmus_."

She laughed, deflecting the spell with a counter-charm, "You're going to have to do better than that." She lifted her own wand and with a flick of her wrist, disarmed the other witch. Hermione's wand mercilessly clattered to the floor and rolled behind a sofa nearly five meters away. Hermione's eyes widened as she tried to think up a different way to get out of the common room and get help.

Bellatrix directed her attention to the handful of Death Eaters scattered around the room. "Leave us," she said in a slow drawl. As the men turned to exit, she added, "Hammond," one of the men stopped and turned around, "go find the student who escaped before and bring her back under a silencing charm. She's probably cowering in a closet somewhere, shouldn't be hard to find." The man nodded and went to retrieve the girl.

Hermione swallowed hard. "You're not going to get away with this," she stated bluntly.

"Is that so?" Bellatrix asked, clearly amused by the girl's statement. She took the girl firmly by the arm and began to walk her over to the chairs surrounding the fireplace. "On the contrary, my dear, I believe I will be getting away with _this_ and much more." She motioned to the empty chair, one that was conveniently free of dead bodies, "Now sit."

Hermione sat on the edge of an ottoman, as far as she could get from the bodies. She covertly glanced behind the nearest sofa, hoping desperately to catch a glimpse of her wand. _I wonder how long I can stall before a teacher finds out what happened in here, _she thought idly, snapping her gaze back to Bellatrix as the older woman cleared her throat.

"Horcruxes," she stated simply as she pushed a corpse off of her chair and took a seat. Hermione flinched. Bellatrix smiled, "I suppose I can assume that you know what I'm talking about?"

She nodded, face contorted into a look that depicted neither interest nor fear. "What about them?" Her voice was shaking which made the Death Eater smile.

"Harry seems to have a knack for taking things that don't belong to him," Bellatrix insisted, leaning back into her chair. "It has come to my attention that he has one of my master's horcruxes in Harry's possession, am I correct?"

Offering no verbal reply, Hermione simply turned her head to the side, avoiding eye contact with the woman. Bellatrix rose silently from her chair and walked towards Hermione, advancing slowly until she stood mere inches from the girl. The dull throbbing on the left side of her face came as a shock and the girl took a moment before she realized that Bellatrix had hit her. A metallic taste slowly began to fill her mouth, _blood. _

"Answer the question," Bellatrix snapped, growing agitated with the girl. Hermione nodded in response and bit at her bottom lip in nervous preparation for the woman's next question: "What does it look like and how can I find it?" Bellatrix stated simply, leaning down to Hermione's level as she stared deeply into the girl's eyes.

She shrugged and shook her head violently from side to side, "I don't know." The words barely left her mouth before Bellatrix's fist connected with her face again.

"Liar," Bellatrix stated as though it were a fact rather than an accusation. "Don't worry, I will get the information I'm looking for." She turned on her heel and ran a hand through her ragged hair, "What condition you are in when I am done receiving that information is entirely up to you."

Hermione's eyes began to water involuntarily as the realization dawned on her: _I'm going to die here. All for some bloody horcrux Harry didn't bother to tell me about._ She continued to stare at the floor, resolving that she would not look her killer in the eye unless she had to.

Bellatrix continued, "Are you ready to cooperate?"

She let out a long sigh, "No." Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind. _Teachers, anyone in the corridors can hear me._ _I'm as good as dead anyway, I might as well start screaming._ "_Help_! Somebody, _please_ help me!" she managed to cry out before Bellatrix slapped a hand over her mouth.

Her face contorted into a deranged smile as she laughed, "Your insolence is outweighed only by your stupidity, Miss Granger. _Silencio_." With that, she took hold of Hermione's robes and dragged the girl over to the closest wall which happened to be a few feet away from the fireplace. Hermione attempted to resist, screaming silent protests and flailing her limbs uselessly as she was overpowered by the stronger woman. Bellatrix removed her perfectly manicured hands from their grasp on Hermione's robes and instead closed her fingers tightly around Hermione's neck.

Clenching her hands around the girl's airway, she continued to speak, "You know where he's hiding it. My associates are tearing apart his bedroom as we speak, not to mention anyone who gets in their way. They _will _find it, I have no doubt."

Hermione gasped for breath, receiving no air in return for her struggle. She squirmed and pushed against the woman's hands with her own. _Damn it, Harry, where did you hide it?_

"Why are you holding out?" Her response was a strangled gasp. "Tell me where it is, and I'll let you go," Bellatrix said in a soft voice, her mouth very close to Hermione's ear. Her head was swimming, swirling with the feeling that came from being deprived of oxygen. Finally, Bellatrix released her grip. "Fuck it," she mumbled as the girl sank to the ground, hands clasped around her own throat in an attempt to soothe away the pain.

Sitting with her legs sprawled out limply on the ground, Hermione breathed deeply for a few moments, waiting for the woman towering above her to begin another attack. A few minutes passed and out of curiosity, she looked up to find Bellatrix gripping her brow in frustration. "I really thought that you'd tell me where it was, I honestly did," she said, shaking her head. The woman smiled, "Doesn't matter. I was always more of a hands-on person anyway."

A few seconds of contemplative silence passed before Bellatrix buried a boot into Hermione's stomach. Her position shifted slightly, allowing her attacker access to the rest of her body which Bellatrix took full advantage of. Another pause, and she placed the heel of her boot into the center of Hermione's vulnerable chest and began to exert pressure. When the first rib cracked, Hermione let out a full-fledged scream which was also silenced by the charm. Bellatrix, however, noticed this reaction and smiled, "I can stop whenever you want." Hermione's mouth remained tightly shut, making no further attempts to voice a protest as she watched the woman withdraw her boot before kicking her again, again in the stomach.

She couldn't move, couldn't speak without feeling the pain shoot through her chest and abdomen. She curled into a ball and rested her back against the stone wall, attempting to shield herself from any more of Bellatrix's torture. The kick to the face came as a shock, causing Hermione's head to snap back. Had she been able to speak, she would have let out a moan as she felt her face begin to swell and bleed from the sheer force of the blow. She sat there and shook her head, taking each blow as if the pain no longer affected her anymore.

"How about now?" Bellatrix asked, panting from the exertion of her physical torture. She knelt down and watched as Hermione found the strength to drag her body up from the ground, making their eyes level with one another. "Are you ready to talk now?"

Hermione called on every ounce of dignity that remained in her body as she drew a breath and nodded. In one swift moment, any evidence of a smile was wiped clean from Bellatrix's features as Hermione spat in the woman's face.

She snapped. "Why you little..." Pulling the girl's head back by a handful of hair, Bellatrix drew her wand from her pocket and pointed it at Hermione's throat. Pausing for a moment, she reconsidered and took a deep breath, trying to make good use of the rage that was building within her. "I want to hear you_ beg_ for mercy. When you're an _inch _away from death, I want to hear you_ scream_," she snarled and lifted the silencing charm. Hermione's breathing became heavy and pained as she fought to remain conscious. "_Crucio_," Bellatrix shouted, pointing the tip of her wand directly at the other witch's torso.

She screamed. Her voice was hoarse from strangulation, yet Hermione managed to scream louder than she thought possible. The pain that surged through her body was like a white hot flame, devouring every scrap of her flesh and leaving no inch of her body untouched. She writhed on the ground, eyes and teeth clenched, hoping to rid the pain from her body to no avail. Her head snapped back and connected with the hard stone floor but the pain did not register as her body was overcome with the curse.

After what seemed like hours, Bellatrix flicked her wand to the side, providing instant relief to the girl on the ground. Hermione curled onto her side and began to shake violently as if she were freezing cold. Her hands moved rapidly, clenching and loosening as if the sensation was foreign to her. In the minutes that she had endured the curse, the pain cancelled out every other feeling, every other sensation in her until she was consumed by the burning torment of unrestrained torture. She choked back her sobs, if only for the moment, and looked her attacker dead in the eyes. "Are you ready to talk now?" Bellatrix asked in a voice one would be expected to use with a petulant five-year-old child.

Hermione shook her head in disgust and Bellatrix knelt down so that she was only a few feet away from the girl. She took a series of long breaths to regulate her breathing. "Go to hell, _bitch_," she spat, the words seeping like venom through her blood-soaked lips. _Shit, I shouldn't have said that, I shouldn't have said that. Urgh, my_ head_. I think I'm going to pass out..._

She could see a fire begin to burn in Bellatrix's eyes as soon as the words left her mouth. "Get up," the Death Eater said. Her voice had dropped an octave and the frustration within her words was evident. Hermione tried to move but found her limbs unwilling to comply. She struggled to lift her legs, only to have her shoes scuffle uselessly against the floor. "I said _get up_!" Bellatrix shouted. Grabbing a handful of Hermione's robes with each fist, she raised the girl to her feet and smacked her mercilessly against the stone wall.

Hermione's vision was blurred by the throbbing pain in her head leaving her unable to focus on her attacker. Within seconds, Bellatrix had her by the throat again, this time cutting off her airway with more force than before. Hermione gagged and tried to draw a breath, only to be subdued by the death-grip Bellatrix's hands had exerted on her swollen throat. Her vision steadily grew worse and she could feel the blackness begin to set in as she struggled in vain to take a breath of air...

"We've got it!" an unnamed Death Eater exclaimed as he descended the staircase before the boy's dormitory with the assumed horcrux in hand.

The hold on her throat was immediately released as Bellatrix twisted her head around to identify the source of the interruption. Hermione coughed and spluttered as the hands were removed from her throat. She tried to lift her arms to massage her aching neck only to find that her muscles still refused to comply. She hung limply against the wall, pinned by Bellatrix's arms, unable to retaliate, unable to call for help, unable to do anything but ensure that she kept breathing. _Breathe, just breathe. Anything to distract from the pain._

Bellatrix, seeing the horcrux, grinned, "Of _course_, an expensive item like that you'd be sure to keep in the family for a long time." She turned her attention back to the girl she had pinned to the wall, "Let me finish up here and then we'll go, alright?" A few men mumbled in agreement, too intimidated by the woman to voice any complaints. Hermione's eyes fluttered open as she fought to remain conscious. "Next time you try to outsmart me, girl, there's going to be hell to pay," Bellatrix snapped, loosening her hold on Hermione's robes while she took a step backward.

By the time Hermione spotted the other witch's wand, it was too late.

"_Sectumsempra!_"

The shock of the impact alone should have been enough to kill her. She was thrown back against the wall with a sickening thud, the pain sending shockwaves through her body. All over her body, Hermione felt as though knives had scraped away at her flesh, leaving long, deep cuts. Her eyelids drooped and the rest of her body followed suit, her slack form slid gracelessly down to the floor leaving her limbs sprawled out, useless. She could feel the blood as it poured from every open wound on her body, spilling out on to the floor, taking her life with it. The last thought that passed through her mind as she lay motionless on the cold floor was, 'Next time?' accompanied with the bitter laughter that followed Bellatrix out of the common room and into the night.

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A/N: So did I do a good job with that? Tell me in a review. Oh, and next chapter things (like plot.. heh) will begin to progress a bit.


	3. Fault

**A/N:** I would've posted this last week if I was allowed to have a computer while I was stuck in the hospital, but obviously I wasn't so... Reviewers are awesome. You all should review more.

Trisagian: I read your review and was just like "GAH!, NO!" when I realized my stupid mistake. See, that's what happens when I proof read my chapters at 1 a.m. on a school day... I'll get around to fixing it at some point, I promise. As to Bellatrix's evilness, she will become less sane as the story progresses, you can count on it.

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(Hermione's POV) 

I've been in the hospital wing for at least a full day, the majority of which I spent unconscious and completely unaware of my surroundings. From the sound of the voices in the room, I've determined that Harry and Ron are here with Headmistress McGonagall, being entirely unprofessional by discussing my condition in front of me. I suppose I can't blame me; they still assume that I'm unconscious.

I have been lying here with my eyes closed for the past hour, trying to discern how serious this situation is. Not _my_ situation, rather the Death Eater attack on Hogwarts. So far, all I've heard are anxious and impatient remarks about my health from Ron, and assurances of revenge from Harry. I keep hearing bits and pieces of their conversation, how the horcrux was in Harry's possession without him knowing about it, how Bellatrix managed to get into the school undetected.

Someone's stroking the back of my hand. I can feel Ron's coarse fingertips as they skid tenderly across the exposed flesh on my wrist. His fingernail accidentally scrapes against a patch of scar tissue and I try to stifle a gasp as a jolt of pain shoots up my arm. Unfortunately, I discern that Harry must have heard me because he's calling my name and shaking my shoulder to provoke a further reaction.

---

"Hermione?" Harry looked over at the girl laying unconscious in the bed in front of him, his eyes searching her form frantically for any sign that she had heard him. "Hermione?" he asked again, louder this time, touching her shoulder.

Hermione flinched under his touch and tried to move away from his hand, finding only that the movement caused her more pain than she was prepared to endure. Her heavy eyelids parted and allowed her to adjust her vision to the blurry figures of Ron, Harry and Headmistress McGonagall standing on the side of her bed. _Where is everyone else_, she wondered briefly.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice deep and raspy. She slowly raised a hand to her throat, a simple action that provoked a substantial amount of pain. It felt as if someone had drained the blood from her veins and replaced it with a molten liquid. Hermione clenched her jaw to prevent herself from crying out, breathing slowly and deeply as she tried to massage the aching muscles in her neck. Asking Harry, "what happened?" seemed more like a formality than a desire to know the answer. She remembered what had happened, she remembered every moment of it. The bodies, the torture, the mind-numbing pain. The memories that plagued her mind were as clear and as vivid as the three people that stood before her now. But she had to hear it from someone else in order to reassure herself that the events really happened, in order to convince herself that she would _not _wake up tomorrow and walk downstairs to find a common room bustling with students, happy and full of life.

Harry bit his lip and frowned slightly. "Ron, could you give us a minute?" he asked in a tone which suggested that "no" was not a possible answer.

Ron nodded and gave a brief half-smile to Hermione before turning and exiting the room.

Harry sighed and looked to McGonagall for support. She nodded, permitting him to speak. "Last night, Bellatrix Lestrange led a group of Death Eaters in an attack on the school, more specifically Gryffindor House. Her target wasn't me, it was a horcrux that I apparently had in my possession," Harry paused to allow the impact of the words sink in and took a deep breath. "My dad's invisibility cloak, the one Dumbledore gave me. Apparently, it wasn't really the one that had belonged to my father after all, rather a horcrux that Dumbledore secretly placed in my possession," Harry looked down at the floor, appearing slightly ashamed as he divulged this detail. Hermione looked up at him expectantly. "Voldemort ordered Bellatrix to retrieve it, and she did... but not without annihilating most of our House in the process."

Hermione swallowed hard and clenched her eyes shut, unable to look Harry in the face anymore. This was what she had expected to hear, a summarization of what had happened and why it had occurred. Her friends were dead. Killed by Death Eaters, with no clear intention other than to cause as much pain as possible to the students who were fortunate enough to avoid death. Her closed eyelids formed a barrier, forbidding her tears to fall. _I can't break down in front of him, I can't.. not now._

His gaze fell reluctantly on Hermione's face as he added, "I should have been here to stop it. I should have known Snape would lie to us. That _bastard_. It was part of Bellatrix's plan all along, just another plot to lure me away and then..." Harry paused to compose himself and as Hermione looked back up at him, she could tell he was fighting back tears.

"Harry," she said weakly, "there is no way you could have anticipated this. He was a reliable informant, you had every reason to trust him."

He shook his head slowly, "I completely disregarded my instincts. I _knew_ he couldn't be trusted, I've always known." Harry looked down at her and shrugged his shoulders indifferently, "We shouldn't talk about this now. Not when you're..."

Hermione nodded and swallowed hard. She felt the tears threatening to fall again despite her resolution not to cry. It wasn't Harry's fault. It could _never_ be Harry's fault. Her injuries and the deaths of the other students were her fault alone. _If I had walked into the common room earlier, none of this would have happened. My friends wouldn't be dead and I wouldn't be on the receiving end of everyone's pity._

Minutes passed before Harry cleared his throat. "Look, I don't know how much you saw, or what happened to you at all really, but you need to know that..." he trailed off and began staring at the floor again, as if the rest of his statement lie trapped beneath the porcelain floor tiles of the hospital wing.

She looked up at him with concern, immediately getting the impression that he was withholding information from her. "Harry, what is it?" Before the words left her mouth, she feared the worst. The thought struck her with a blow worse than any Bellatrix had inflicted that night in the common room: "Ginny," the name escaped her lips before she had the chance to stop herself. "Where is she, is she alright?" The fear was evident in her eyes as they darted back and forth between Harry and McGonagall, searching for an explanation, _anything _from either one of them. "Harry, _please_," she pleaded with him, her voice cracking on the second word.

He shook his head and clenched his teeth, allowing his gaze to return to the floor once again. The Headmistress stepped towards Hermione's bed and placed a hand on the railing that lined the side. "Ms. Granger," McGonagall began formally, "what you fail to understand is that the Death Eaters, under the direction of Bellatrix Lestrange, are accustomed to using alternative methods of torture that do not involve solely physical pain." She paused and furrowed her brow, "From what Madame Pomfrey has told me, it is reasonable to assume that Ginny Weasley, though she is alive and safe for the time being, was subject to some type of severe mental torture. She is currently in a state of shock."

She didn't know what to say, what to think. So many thoughts converged on her mind at the same time that it was impossible to hear any singular thought at once. Several long seconds passed and one thought resounded in her mind, louder and more forceful than the others: _She's alive. Ginny's alive. _The knot in the center of her chest loosened slightly, but the thought alone did nothing to assuage her guilt. "Where is she?" Hermione pleaded with the Headmistress, "I need to see her."

McGonagall nodded, sadness and pity displayed clearly across her face. She moved soundlessly towards the hospital bed to Hermione's right, one with the curtain drawn around all sides. Slowly, she pulled back the curtain to reveal Ginny Weasley sleeping quietly in the midst of a pile of tangled bed sheets. Her brilliant red hair was matted and stuck to the sweat that lined the sides of her face. "She was raving when Harry and Ron brought her in," McGonagall explained quietly. "Madame Pomfrey sedated her, she will not wake for several hours."

Hermione nodded, not knowing what to say. Ginny had been tortured and it was all her fault. _I should have been there, protecting her. I should have followed her down the stairs._ Seeing Ginny lying there, she fought against the urge to spring from her bed and throw both of her arms around the younger girl, to comfort her and never to let go.

Sensing the guilt that played over in Hermione's mind, McGonagall rested a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Hermione, I know how difficult this may be for you, but I need you to tell Madame Pomfrey exactly what happened to you that night. She needs to be sure of your injuries in order to administer the proper treatment, you understand," McGonagall said softly and tenderly as if she were speaking to a young child. Hermione nodded blankly, just barely processing the information. "We'll give you some privacy," the Headmistress added before walking towards the door and out of the wing with Harry following her reluctantly.

She nodded and acknowledged Madame Pomfrey's presence as she sat down at her bedside with a quill and a scrap of parchment. Hermione recited the events of the attack with no trace of emotion in her voice. What had happened still seemed so surreal; it was as if she was telling the story of someone else. _I'm still in shock_, she reasoned, _I need a few more days to let all of this sink in_. She finished recalling the events leading to her injuries and Madame Pomfrey nodded, muttered something about giving her a series of potions in the morning and then departed in the direction of her office.

The entire conversation with Harry and McGonagall was a blur. She found herself doubting some of the things that were said, trying desperately to discern what was fact and what she was not being told. Her mind wasn't working properly. Every time she tried to think about the attack, to think back to her earlier conversation, thoughts of Ginny took hold of her mind and refused to let go. Glancing once again at Ginny's limp form, Hermione fought hard to keep the tears from falling. _It's all my fault, I could have saved her. It's all my fault._

Only when she was absolutely sure that Madame Pomfrey was in her office and of earshot did she finally allow herself to cry. Stifled, nearly silent sobs wracked her body and made her shake uncontrollably as her tears flowed freely, drenching her face and seeping slowly into her pillow. It was impossible for her to tell whether minutes or hours had passed before exhaustion consumed her body and allowed her to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

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A/N: I don't like this chapter; I personally think I could've written it better. Oh well. I hope you choose to read more because the plot will only get more interesting from here. And reviewing only makes me update faster, so... 


	4. Realization

A/N: Hi guys, I'm not dead! So erm, yeah... life happened and this fic got put on the back burner for an extended period of time. Enjoy the update, I'll try to get back on some sort of schedule as to when updates will occur, but it's my Junior year in high school and something always manages to pop up at the most inconvenient time. I apologize in advance for the inconsistencies in capitalization as they occur throughout the duration of this story and this chapter.

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Ginny's screams tore through the abandoned dormitory and shook Hermione out of a deep sleep. Hermione sat up in her bed and gazed around the room, bleary-eyed, looking for signs of distress. In the bed on the other side of the room was Ginny, her body engaged in a futile struggle against her sheets that only managed to twist tighter around her body the more she tried to kick them off. 

Hermione sighed. This was becoming typical behavior of her friend since the Death Eater attack. Every night for a week, Hermione awoke in the middle of the night to hear the other girl sobbing, screaming Hermione's name, begging for the pain to stop. Whatever was left of Gryffindor tower had long since abandoned their rooms, including Hermione and Ginny. After she had gotten out of the Hospital Wing, Hermione had followed Ginny to Ravenclaw Tower to keep an eye on her. The layout of the common room and the dormitories was similar with the exception of the color scheme which took a bit of getting used to after sleeping under banners of red and gold for years.

_Sometimes I wish she wouldn't make so much _noise, Hermione groaned as she threw back her sheets and walked over to Ginny's bed where the girl was still in the middle of a nightmare. _A whole week without more than two hours of sleep each night._ She pulled a loose strand of hair back behind her ear and knelt at Ginny's bedside. Careful not to startle her any further, Hermione slowly rested a hand on Ginny's shoulder and nudged her gently. "Gin?" she whispered. "Ginny, it's me."

Ginny stirred a little. "Can't be you..." she slurred, barely awake, "you're dead."

Hermione faltered. _She's still asleep, she doesn't know what she's-- _"Ginny, you're dreaming. I'm right here, see?" she ran the back of her hand across Ginny's face lightly brushing against the skin as the other girl's eyes opened.

Ginny sat bolt upright and scanned the room, frantically, disconcerted by the sudden change in her surroundings. She was breathing heavily and Hermione didn't need to see her face to know that she was crying. "Hermione?" she asked. Nervously, she pulled an arm from the constraints of her sheets and gripped the sleeve of Hermione's nightshirt tightly. "Don't leave me," she whimpered, "please don't leave me."

Hermione nodded and ran her hand through Ginny's hair, "It'll be ok, everything will be ok. Just go back to sleep, alright?" _Why do I have so much trouble believing that?_

She nodded wearily and eased back into her bed. She kicked herself free of her sheets and beckoned, half-asleep, "Stay with me?" Hermione let out a deep breath and agreed. She settled into a position and wrapped an arm around the other girl protectively, prepared to keep watch over her until the sun rose, _what do I have left? Three hours? Four?_ Ginny relaxed into Hermione's touch, the steady heartbeat and slow breathing informed her a few minutes later that Ginny had fallen asleep. Hermione sighed and leaned her head on Ginny's shoulder, feeling the warmth and nearness of the other girl's body. _I could fall in love with her,_ the thought drifted through Hermione's mind moments before she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

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Hermione awoke the next morning to an empty bed. _She wanted to avoid embarrassment. This is the what... fifth time this week that I've woken up in her bed? _Their situation was a unique one. After the attack on the school, the majority of the students staying in Gryffindor Tower had fled, either back to their homes or to safe houses in the middle of nowhere. It was becoming clear to everyone that Hogwarts was no longer safe. Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Ron and a handful of Dumbledore's Army continued to reside in the castle; Ginny and Ron because their parents were in hiding where they could not follow, Hermione and Harry because they were not eager to leave their friends behind. Harry and Ron were becoming more scarce around the castle lately due to their unyielding efforts to track down missing members of the Order. They were in the middle of a war, the reality of it was undisputed. 

Hermione brushed her teeth and threw on a set of clean clothes quickly, wondering where Ginny had gone off to so early in the morning. She walked over to her own bed and pulled the sheets up, tucked the comforter in and rearranged the pillows before sitting down on the edge. She pulled a hardback novel from in between the mattresses and began to read. She was unaware of how much time had passed before a knock on the open door jolted her back into reality.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Ginny said from the doorway, her voice barely above a whisper.

Hermione set her book down, not even bothering to mark the page, and nodded. Ginny walked into the room and sat on the foot of Hermione's bed, keeping her eyes focused on the floor. "Ginny?" she asked, concerned. Ginny had been acting odd lately, but then, everyone had their own method of coping with a traumatic experience. _She saw the bodies of her friends, all dead before she got there, it's enough to drive anyone insane._

Ginny loosened her tie and began fidgeting with the tip. Her eyes were fixed on the ground in front of her. "I need to tell you," she said slowly. She took a deep breath and fought to compose herself before continuing, "That night.. when you were attacked?" Hermione swallowed hard and nodded. "I... walked downstairs right? After I left your room? And I saw all of them, laying there," she paused when she noticed she was shaking, first in her hands and then her entire body. Hermione slid up behind her and wrapped her arms around Ginny's fragile form. "At first I thought there was something I could do to help," she continued, her voice echoing the shakes that wracked her body, "so I ran down there, straight into this man.. this Death Eater. I screamed. I didn't know what to do, I couldn't move.. I just _stood _there." She choked back a sob, "He tried to drag me into another room, but something just snapped and I... I punched him." She laughed bitterly, "Right in the face, too. Must've hurt like a bitch because he used the Cruciatus curse on me."

Hermione inhaled sharply, alarmed and struck with a surge of guilt, _All of this happened before I even went down there to see what was going on. How could I have been so stupid._ She noticed Hermione's distress and added, "There's nothing you could have done. I had about a second's worth of a scream before he used a Silencing Charm." She pursed her lips tightly, carefully considering what to say next. A long and painful silence followed before Ginny whispered, "He was going to kill me, but she told him not to." The tears she had been trying to hold back escaped slowly, one by one, "She told him to bind my arms and keep me there. She wanted me to watch her kill you." Hermione's arms tightened around Ginny's waist as gasping sobs punctuated her words, "She... I thought... when she... _you weren't moving._"

_Can't cry, I can't cry, I can't cry.. not now. _Hermione was shaking now, in an effort to keep back the tears threatening to escape. "Ginny," she whispered, "Ginny... I--"

"She was walking towards the portrait hole with the rest of them," Ginny said as if in a trance, picturing the scene in her mind. "She stopped. Grabbed me by the hair and made me stand up. Made me look at you," Ginny whispered. She turned around to face Hermione, tears glistening in her eyes, "You were dead, she told me. Made me look at your body, told me that I would join you and the rest of my House if she ever saw me again." Her eyes snapped back to the floor, "But she was running late, she needed to leave... she left me there. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak. It was hours before anyone found me, before someone realized that I wasn't another dead body."

Hermione held her from behind tightly, protectively, as a tear slipped slowly down her cheek. _There was nothing I could have done, _she thought. Nothing could have saved all of those dead students, nothing could have spared Ginny the sight of their mangled bodies... _my mangled body._ "Ginny," she whispered, pleading with the girl sobbing in her arms, "it's over. I'm alive and she can't hurt you here."

Ginny looked up at her. "How do you know," she snapped angrily through her tears, "how do you know she won't be back to finish us all off?"

Hermione sighed and pulled a loose strand of hair back behind Ginny's ear, "I don't. You're right, she probably will be back with hundreds of Death Eaters and You-Know-Who." Ginny made a noise that sounded like a mix between a whimper and a groan, Hermione tilted her head so she was looking Ginny in the eyes, "But I will die before I let any of them hurt you."

Ginny turned around to face her, startled by Hermione's statement. The sadness plastered across Hermione's face was enough to make her start crying again. Ginny smiled weakly and pulled Hermione into an awkward hug, shifting her body so that the two faced each other. They sat there for what seemed like an eternity, holding each other close. Hermione let go first, but Ginny remained close to her, the two of them just inches apart, eyes locked in a gaze that neither of them wanted to break. It was that moment that Ginny chose to kiss her.

Their lips had barely brushed together, but Hermione jolted back, startled by the sensation and Ginny's behavior. Her eyes were wide with panic as she surveyed Ginny with her eyes, "What--?" _She just.. did that really just happen? Does that mean that she's..._

Ginny jumped off the bed, obviously as shocked as, if not more than, Hermione. "I- I'm s-sorry," she stammered as she moved towards the door, "I don't know--. I'm sorry!" Ginny was out the door in a flash, slamming it shut behind her before Hermione could process what had just happened.

It was only when Ginny was long gone that Hermione realized that she had just blown whatever chance she might have had with her.

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A/N: Oooh, the suspense! If you enjoyed it, please leave a review.

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